The Kobayashi Maru scenario

Sci-fi addicts will understand why the Star Trek reference in the title is appropriate.

A comment by the minimally named ‘IC’ on a previous article here neatly sums up an aspect of the situation in the United States:

How many of those who died in the Katrina catastrophe chose not to evacuate? When you died and became one of the satistics, your loved ones would cry and wail in front of CNN, someone started to sue, some politicians’ cushy jobs died with you for not doing their jobs of rescuing you from yourself. Hence we have all these idiotic CYA [cover-your-arse] laws.

On the other hand, if you were forced to evacuate, and Katrina hit Houston instead, and your New Orleans home was looted while you were gone, you start fuming in front of CNN, some politicians got blamed for forcing you to leave…

According to their official plan, they were supposed to announce a mandatory evacuation on Friday, 72 hours before the storm.

It’s not a “let’s improvise, what should we do” question like the simulation, it’s “hey, the storm is within the parameters we set a few years back, let’s go.”

And, of course, the one thing that people keep forgetting is that evacuation is a process, not a one-time event. After the storm hit, and right about the time they figured out that the floods were coming, the rest of the evacuation should have commenced.

Perry, traditionally responsibility is supposed to flow upward, and US presidents get a lot of criticism they don’t deserve. It’s not a job for anyone with thin skin, there’s a famous saying to the effect “If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.”

The fact that Bush will be for lots of undeserved criticism doesn’t bother me any more than when it’s happened to any other president. This looks like a bad performance all the way around and there’s plenty of blame at the local, state _and_ federal levels.

And, the head of FEMA (presumably a Bush appointee) has shown himself to be utterly incompetent with no experience or qualifications in the field and has said some very stupid things that make his lack of basic competence very clear. Bush certainly deserves criticism for that.

One of the most appalling things I’ve seen watching the TV coverage is the total dependancy on the State to come to the rescue when things go wrong and the incredible lack of responsibility on the part of those caught by the disaster. It was not the same on the other side of the world when the tsunami hit. Maybe this perception has been helped by what the news services have chosen to show us and I hope I’m wrong but it seems to me that American get up and go has gotten up and gone.

Yes I am ignoring all those voluntary groups that have come along to help as my point is about how easily the victims took to the role of victims.

Bernie, the victims that the news media have focused on are the bottom-feeding, welfare class. The “role of victim” was easily assumed because they weren’t adopting new roles when they showed up on CNN. These people are not going to be competing with the illegals who’ve “stolen” US jobs now that they’ve been shipped out to Texas. They’ll be standing in line. Still waiting for help they believe they are owed.

Seems the right things are being done now, and the situation is under control, but there was a four day delay in activating the emergency measures.

Yes and no. At the local level, I don’t know what happened (and I doubt the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans do, either). At the federal level, FEMA has always advised local governments that it would be 72-96 hours before they were able to respond to a disaster in force, and that local disaster response plans should be designed to last at least that long.

One family from Liverpool, trapped in a flooded section of the city, told relatives yesterday of their bewilderment when they realised US citizens would be offered preferential treatment.

…that is absolutely contrary to what I would expect. New Orleans’ main industry aside from the port is tourism, and southerners have long claimed that hospitality is one of the things they do better than other Americans. I would expect tourists to be treated somewhat better than locals in such a situation.

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